Arriving By Air

The city of London is served by five airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and City. Most international flights are likely to arrive at either London Heathrow or London Gatwick.

In addition, the city can be reached by rail from Paris, Lille and Brussels via the Channel Tunnel. London is also well served by British road and rail networks. See 'Airports' section for information on travel options into London.



Getting Around London

There are many forms of reliable public transport in and around central London. Tube trains travel to all parts of the city as do the traditional London buses, easy to identify as they are painted red. Open-top buses provide a way of sightseeing whilst travelling, and boats along the Thames are also a more unusual way to make a journey. Try an amphibious Duck boat for a novel sightseeing tour from the London Eye; or stick to dry land and hire a limousine or classic car, perhaps driving out to Windsor for the day or further afield to the Cotswolds.

Transport for London operates the capital's underground, bus, train and tram services – with various incentive schemes available for multiple use. If you are traveling around London for a day or more, consider purchasing a Travelcard or Oystercard for longer stays, both available from train stations for unlimited use on all public transport (after 9.30 am). Prices from £6 for Zones 1 & 2 (central London). Individual passes are also available for the different modes of transport at a slightly reduced price from the all-encompassing Travelcard.

Tube: London's Tube system is divided into 6 Zones, with major Central London districts covered by Zones 1 and 2. The Tube is not an all-night service – they operate from 5.30am Monday to Saturday and 7am Sunday; with last trains leaving between 11.30pm and 12.30am depending on the line, station and day. Click here for Tube maps.

Bus: Regular buses operate all over London between 6am to around midnight, with night buses (prefixed N) operating outside these hours. Tickets can be purchased from the driver or the ticket conductor on busier routes.

Taxi: Black cabs and minicabs are available in the capital – and are in service when a yellow light is displayed above the windscreen. London 'cabbies' are renowned for their local knowledge. Many taxis now offer receipt and credit card payment services.

Car: The volume of traffic in London at most times of the week make driving around the city time-consuming and patience-sapping. Yet there are exceptions – the City of London is beguilingly quiet at weekends and a drive through Central London on a warm August evening may leave you wondering what happened to the crowds you expected.

Traveller Information, Maps & Books: For help in planning your journeys around the capital, visit Journeyplanner or call 020 7222 1234. The British Travel Centre at 1 Regent Street provides information, maps, booklets and travel passes. Stanfords in Covent Garden is a dedicated travel bookseller with a definitive collection of maps and travel books. Various compact booklets with fold-out maps are available in newsagents, but tend to only highlight the tourist centre of the city. Popular London guidebooks are published by Time Out, Lonely Planet, Footprint and DK's Eyewitness series. A London A-Z can also prove invaluable for locating streets. Transport for London features routes, maps and advice for all public transport in London including the underground buses, and cycle network.




Trains From London

These principal London rail stations broadly serve the following UK areas:

Paddington: Serving West of England and South Wales; Heathrow Airport Express terminus.
Marylebone: Midlands and northern Cotswolds (eg. Birmingham, Warwick, Banbury).
Euston: Central and North-West England, Western Scotland (eg. Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow); also links with ferry ports to Ireland.
St Pancras: East Midlands (eg. Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby).
Kings Cross: North-Eastern England and Eastern Scotland (eg. Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh).
Liverpool Street: East Anglia (eg. Norwich, Ipswich); Stansted Airport Express terminus.
London Bridge, Cannon Street & Charing Cross: South Coast and South-East England (eg. Brighton, Eastbourne, Dover).
Waterloo: South West England between Portsmouth and Exeter.
Victoria: South Coast and South East England (eg. Brighton, Dover); Gatwick Airport Express terminus.